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Category Archives: Givenchy

Since you guys seem to be liking these types of posts, I guess I’ll stick with Handbags for now and move on to Shoesafter… or maybe a mix of both? Anyways, these are some of the Handbags I mentioned in My Story: Handbags (dis).

I recently dug these out from one of the boxes, but unlike the other stuff, they hadn’t been there for too long. I don’t remember when I got them, but know for a fact, that I was too young to buy them for myself (no money), which meant my parents must’ve purchased them for me. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve “borrowed” at least one of them (possibly two), from my mom’s collection of Handbags.

Our live-in chauffeur was traveling back to India and specifically asked for Perfume to gift to his wife. Apparently, the last handful of Perfumes I’d given him (for his previous visit) were such a huge hit with the wife! She not only liked the scents, but also their performances, as she went about her day in the village, according to him. He said, every time his wife’s sisters would visit her, they’d all ask for a spritz from her Perfume Collection! So, when he asked me to give him any otherPerfumes that I didn’t want. Emboldened by the success of the previous scents, I gave him the following:

To be fair, the scent of Reb’l Fleur by Rihanna was everything I’d hoped for and more! It’s just that the other items in the Gift Set were suspect and the box itself smelled like a small animal had crawled in there to die.

I’d gotten tricked into purchasing the newer Elie Saab Perfume, which was Girl of Now Shine (gold petals on the bottle) instead of Girl of Now (which had blue petals on the bottle and was the the one I’d actually wanted).

As for Givenchy Ange ou Demon, I was expecting it to have somewhat similar DNA to the flanker I’d grown to love, called Ange ou Demon Le Secret Elixir (review here), but they had pretty much nothing in common.

Gucci Guilty Pour Femme was just an all around mess (it didn’t know whether it wanted to be floral or gourmand or woodsy and masculine).

Basically, all of them were a total fail (for different reasons). With that being said…

For the sake of convenience (it’s just easier for me), I decided to split up my Sephora Haul into 2 posts. This one will feature all the stuff that came in the Holiday Gift Box and the next post will feature stuff I actually payed for at Sephora.

If you don’t feel like reading, you can just click the link and scroll all the way down to see the Black Card GiftandGold Card Gift on display in-store (here) or the very bottom of this post to get a closer look at the Black Card Gift (12pc deluxe samples).

When I payed for my stuff at the check-out counter at Sephora, I was delightfully surprised when the woman behind the cash register pulled out a “Festive Gift Box” and placed it in my shopping bag, alongside the rest of my stuff!

At the Perfume & Makeup Exhibition (here), I wasted time doing a quick lap around the other halls (only one of the halls offered Makeup, whereas the rest all sold traditional Arabic Incense and Oils and Fragrances and such). On my way back, I spotted the iconic bottle of Givenchy’s Ange ou Demon or Ange ou Etrange. It’s the exact same everything, except it has different names in different parts of the world.

I try to make it a point to visit the Perfume & Makeup Exhibition at least once a year. The Perfume & Cosmetics Exhibition takes place twice a year (March and then again in Oct-Nov) in Hall 5 and Hall 6 and Hall 8 at Mishref Fair Grounds. As you can see, the Halls are huge! They’ve always got something or other going on there (sometimes simultaneously), year-round! This year, I noticed that they had strung up pretty fairy lights and arranged a seating area somewhere outside, with a ton of trendy pop-ups in cute little shacks that were catering the event, on either side of the seating area! I actually took a handful of pics, but people’s faces were on full display so I can’t show ’em (privacy blah blah blah consent blah blah blah).

Unfortunately, the majority of the halls participating in the Perfume & Cosmetics Exhibition mainly feature Oud and Teeb (Arab Fragrances), with only a smaller portion of booths featuring “French Perfumes” and an even smaller portion featuring Makeup. Heck, one of the Halls (I wanna’ say Hall 7) was reserved solely and entirely for Boutiqaat (at one point, I saw a tumbleweed roll by).

I’ve been going to the Perfume & Makeup Exhibition for yearsdecades! In fact, even before I used to go there, my mom would get me a Lancome Mascara Gift Set when I was a teen (drugstore brands weren’t as readily available in Kuwait back then). Even just 8 years back, Victoria’s Secret used to participate (here) as did Sephora (here). It’s also where I first spotted China Glaze (here) and Lush (here). Now, it’s so very different (not in a good way) from what it once was…